1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to printing apparatuses and, more particularly, to a power source control mechanism in an image forming apparatus connectable to a plurality of networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Until now, there has been widely used a printing system which is connected to a network to be shared by a large number of users on the network. On the other hand, a printing system has been known which has a plurality of network ports and can be used across a plurality of networks. Such a connection to the plurality of networks is referred to as multi-home connection. One of purposes of the multi-home connection is to share one printing system with a plurality of networks, such as a network for employees of a company and a network for visitors. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-099096 discuses such a printing system connectable to a plurality of networks.
Most users use a printing system without being aware of or confirming situations where the printing system is used in another network, so that it is difficult for the users to determine when to turn off the power supply of the printing system when they go home from the office at night, for example. Although it is possible to entrust the turning off of the power supply to an automatic power supply cutoff mechanism such as an existing automatic shutdown mechanism, a more efficient power supply control technique may be demanded in terms of ecology and operability.
Although Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-099096 discusses a technique for acting as a proxy to perform communication processing for the purpose of making more efficient an energy-saving mode control operation of a network interface connected to one network, it does not deal with a technique for controlling a power supply of the printing system connected to a plurality of networks.